AZ Models 1/72 Morane-Saulnier Type L/Pfalz A.I/A.II/E.III
By Pedro Soares
The Aircraft
The first aircraft to be produced in significant numbers by the Pfalz FlugzeugWerke, a concern established in 1913, in Speyer, in the kingdom of Bavaria, were, as it is widely known, copies of successful French products of the, by then already famous, Morane-Saulnier company.
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Curiously enough, the French origin of the early Pfalzes is not limited to the design itself, since the Oberursel U-O and U-1 power plants that propelled them were also copies of French designs: the Gnome Lambda and the Gnome Monosoupape, respectively.
This is not a uncommon occurrence though, since several other German companies based their early designs in French aircraft, like Euler and Siemens-Schukert that looked for Nieuport 11 for inspiration, but I'm digressing...
The 61 copies of the Morane L Parasol aircraft, produced by Pfalz were to be given three different designations:
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A.I for the 7 cylinder Oberursel U-O 80 hp. powered version;
A.II for the more powerfull 9 cylinder 110hp Oberursel U-1, and
E.III for those A.II that were to be modified to carry a synchronized Spandau machine gun, firing through the propeller arc.
During the span of their operational life, the role of the aircraft was mainly restricted to reconnaissance and training, although bombing missions were also recorded.
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The Kits
In these days when the trend in WW1 aircraft kits seems to be shifting towards big scales with fewer 1/72nd kits appearing on the market , it's always a pleasure to see that some companies are still keeping the flame alive and proposing new kits of aircraft that were either never kitted before or that had only been available as sometimes obscure and hard to find resin or vacform items.
This is the case with Legato/AZ, who, after the very good Hansa Brandenburg and Breguet kits, now come up with a Pfalz/Morane series, in the Scale of scales, comprising
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AZ 7279 - Pfalz A.I
AZ 7290 - Pfalz A.II / E.III
AZ 7281 - Morane-Saulnier Type L Parasol
In truth, my use of the word "series" might be somewhat misleading, since all three versions of the kit share the same parts sprue and the only difference between the three is the addition of a resin machine gun (Hotchkiss, I presume) in the Morane kit, to be used in place of the Spandau that is included in the common parts tree.
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I checked the crisply modeled, flashless parts (with the exception of the engines, where some simple cleaning is in order) against the plans in FMP's Pfalz Aircraft of World War one and French Aircraft of the First World War and, if those are right, I found that the fuselage - although of correct length and profile - appears to be a bit shallow. This can be easily corrected by the addition of a plastic "covering" to the top of the fuselage, but If you won't lose your sleep over a discrepancy of probably less than a mm then you might as well leave it as it is. The wing also seems to be slightly narrow spanwise, and when confronted with the plans on the FMP book it seems to be 2mm shorter than it should. This is not correct though for the drawings in the FMP book show a span of 15,6 cm, when it should be of 15,55 cm, if the dimensions published in the book are correct. As such, a span of 15,4mm as that of the wing provided in the kit is only 1,5 mm less than what it should be, which falls within my tolerance level. Incidentally, the rib detail on the wing is also bit overdone for my taste, but a couple of coats of paint might solve this.
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AZ also supplies 2 types of elevators and rudders, one being meant for the Pfalz and the other for the Morane. From looking at photos I feel that on the Pfalz you should also use those proposed for the Morane, since they have the correct contour (even if again very slightly shorter than the plans). Both supplied rudders, though, will need either reshaping (the contour doesn't match the plans) or replacing with scratchbuilt items.
Construction should pose no special problems since the kit seems to be well engineered. You do have a choice of converting the fuselage for double seating configuration by means of simple surgery on the fuselage parts, but I suspect this should be mandatory, because I could find no clear evidence of single seater configuration in the photos on the book.
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The decals are, as usual, first class and I'm sure will not be an issue.
One thing I really like about AZ is that not only they kit interesting aircraft but also they always seem to find uncommon schemes for them. This time we have :
Pfalz A.I
2 german aircraft, one in a striking a la Austro-Hungarian scheme with red and white bands on the fuselage and wings (the reason for this being explained in the FMP book: the aircraft were used on a bombing raid against Italy, when Germany hadn't yet declared war to that country), plus a Turkish version.
Pfalz A.II/E.III
2 German, plus one Swiss aircraft
Morane-Saulnier Type L
One British RNAS machine, 2 French aircraft and (my favorite) a Brazilian version, with the stricking black, yellow and green cocards of my "país irmão". Well Done AZ!
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Of note is also the fact that the kit has some conversion potential, since the fuselage and wing might be used to easily produce a Morane Type G or H. Given that most of the work is already done, I wouldn't be surprised if AZ would come up with these in the future.
I'll be soon building one or two of these and I'll write up my impressions then.
Thanks to AZ Models for the sample kits.